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SERMON 

4^d 



PREACHED IN THE 



CHURCH IN BRATTLE SQUARE, 

BOSTON, AOOnST 1, 1830, 

THE LORD'S DAY AFTER THE DECEASE OF THE 

HONOURABLE I^AAC PARKER, 

©tref Jx Btfce of i8tassacl)usEtts. 



BY JOHN G. PALFREY, A. M. 

Pastor of the Church in Brattle Square. 

BOSTON : 
NATHAN HALE AND GRAY Sc BOWEN. 

W. L. liewis, Printer. 

1830. 



Ft'} 



In oxch^n?3 
MAR 2 9 n-- 



i 



SERMON. 



EXODUS xviii. 21, 22. 



^hou shalt provide out of all the people able men, such as fear God^ 
"men of truth, hating covetousness, and place such over them, — and let 
them judge the people. 

Magistracy is one of the greatest trusts committed 
to human integrity and wisdom. Under forms of gov- 
ernment which have generally prevailed, men's imagi- 
nations, excited by a sense of its importance, are not 
satisfied without seeing it invested in an external ar- 
ray, significant of its exaltation above the common 
offices of life. It must wear the purple or the ermine. 
It must dwell in a palace, and move abroad attended 
by a crowd. Under our simpler institutions, we dis- 
pense with its livery and its parade ; and possibly, to 
the vulgar view, its essential dignity is thereby made 
less imposing. The plain man, who meets his neigh- 
bours on an equal footing in the common scenes of 
life, dazzling them with no show, repelling them by 
no arrogance, may be forgotten by them to be the 
same, who, day and night, is holding steadily over 
them and theirs the shield of the sovereign power. 
But the wise do not need the " pomp and circum- 
stance" of authority, to remind them that he, who is 



worthily clothed with it, is an object for their rever- 
ence. They only see cause to revere him the more, 
that he is able to reconcile such simplicity of private 
manners with the prerogatives of such a lofty walk of 
duty, and that he is willing to lend himself to the 
anxious cares of office, without those inducements of 
luxury and rank, which are held out to rulers of less 
privileged commimities as fair indemnity for renounc- 
ing the ease and liberty of a private station. 

There is, perhaps, room for the further remark, that, 
as far as there exists a fit apprehension among us of the 
importance of the trust of magistracy, it is chiefly in 
favor of those whose sphere of office is in the admin- 
istration of the central government. They act on a 
larger theatre, and are most conspicuously before the 
whole community. Assuredly we can scarcely enter- 
tain too grateful a sense of faithful services employed 
in adjusting well our relations to foreign states, or, 
by the establishment and application of wholesome 
laws, protecting and enriching the sources of our in- 
ternal prosperity. But we should neither be wisely 
attentive to our own welfare, nor just to those on the 
honest action of whose minds we are most continually 
dependent, if we should degrade into any secondary 
estimation the men, whom, in the administration of 
our own commonwealth, we have called to watch 
over our lives, our property, our reputation,— in short, 
over all our interests of the most intimate concern. 

This important trust of magistracy the text briefly 
instructs us who they are who should be appointed to 



5 

discharge. First; t}iou shall provide^ out of all the 
people i able men. 

They whose province is the execution of the laws, 
for the most part act in a subordinate capacity. Their 
discretion is overruled by legislation and judicial sen- 
tence, and the ability, which they chiefly need, is that 
of calm, and, at the same lime, steadfast resolution. 
— Legislators need to be able men. They have many 
interests to consider, and to reconcile, or, at least, 
balance and adjust. The rules which they approve 
are thenceforward to be no abstract and dormant pro- 
positions, but are to modify, from that moment, the 
relations of all the citizens in a community. What 
they determine to be right, thenceforward commands 
the resources of a community to carry it into effect. 
It is a power which reaches every where, and is no 
where to find resistance. They need to be able men, 
who shall discern and determine the action of such a 
power, so that every where its action may be salu- 
tary. — Judges may well be required to be able men. 
On the whole, there is no trust reposed by men in one 
another so august as theirs. By nothing human am 
I awed, so much as by a tribunal of justice. It is not 
the show of sedate, but decisive power ; it is not that 
the will, which is there announced, is one which there 
is no opposing nor escaping ; it is not that there are 
resolved the great issues of liberty and property, of 
life and death. But it is, that the will, which is there 
announced, approaches the nearest that human in- 
firmity can approach, to being a perfectly righteous 



6 

will. It is, that the voice of law is the clear and sol- 
emn voice of pure reason arbitrating among the con- 
cerns of men. It is that here is in action the most 
complete apparatus, which the experience of ages has 
been able to construct, for the manifestation of naked 
truth ; that here is the closest application of the hu- 
man mind to its discovery. " Of law," says Richard 
Hooker*, in a passage not more brilliant with other 
beauties than with the leading one of truth, " of law 
there can be no less acknowledged, than that her seat 
is the bosom of God, her voice the harmony of the 
world. All things in heaven and earth do her hom- 
age ; the very least as feeling her care, and the great- 
est as not exempted from her power ; both angels and 
men, and creatures of what condition soever, though 
each in different sort and manner, yet each with uni- 
form consent, admiring her as the mother of their 
peace and joy;"* and that understanding, which is an 
inspiration of the Almighty, is never in more admira- 
ble exercise, than when, aided by the mutually oppos- 
ing views which other highly endowed and richly 
instructed minds propose and urge, and biassed itself 
to neither, raised by every possible security above the 
influence of favour or of fear, it moderates between 
them ; traces the fair form of truth by its own lights 
through every path they open ; separates the problem 
from its accidents, and the principle from erroneous 
applications which may have obscured it ; and ascer- 
tains the absolute rule of right, not only for the deter- 

" Ecclesiastical Polity, Book I. adfin. 



mination of the question now agitated, but for the per- 
manent rule of future proceedings. He whose own 
resources are expected to be equal to such investi- 
gation, — whose own patient and clear-sighted modera- 
tion must hold the reins, when the most vigorous 
and fervid minds are in the full career of a mutually 
quickened excitement, — who, in concerns so compli- 
cated, must be looked to to commit no errour, where 
no errour could fail to be a wide mischief, — who 
should make his contribution, for future times, to the 
settled doctrines of social justice, — assuredly he needs 
to be provided out of all the people, not only from 
among able, but from among the most able men. 

Secondly ; thou shalt provide men of truth out of all 
the people, says our text, and place such over them. — 
We need to be sure that they whom we elevate to 
the trust of magistracy shall be men of truth, in the 
sense of being men of probity ; men faithful to the 
truth, as far as it has disclosed itself to them ; prompt 
and explicit to make it known, firm in adherence to 
it, and careful that, as far as depends on them, it shall 
fully do its office, in regulating concerns of others, to 
which it may have application. Publick provisions 
may remove from a publick officer many temptations 
to swerve from the path of integrity. But they can- 
not make him a man of integrity ; and if he is capa- 
ble of being seduced or intimidated into apostasy 
from uprightness and truth, he is only the more to be 
dreaded for possessing an ability, which may help him 
to disguise or defend his deviations. — He should be a 



8, 

man of truth, in the sense of having that attachment 
to it, which shall lead him to seek it by diligent inves- 
tigation. He should be impressed with that sense of 
the worth of truth, and of the strong necessity there is 
that what he announces for its dictates, should indeed 
be such, that he will not be satisfied to take up with 
first impressions, nor think any pains too great, by 
which truth, in its most unequivocal signatures, may 
be ascertained. — Once more, he must be a lover of 
truth, not only that his ability may not be perverted, 
but that we may be assured of his ability being of the 
highest character. Love of truth is not a moral qual- 
ity alone. It deserves to be ranked among qualities 
which make up intellectual power. Nay, it may 
claim to be ranked highest among them ; to be es- 
teemed the first of talents. The capacity of discover- 
ing truth is the great attribute of human reason ; and 
certainly nothing goes further towards the discovery 
of truth, than that state of inclination towards, and 
correspondence with it, which love of it involves ; nor 
can any thing else do so much, to subject the other 
faculties to an effectual training to make them available 
to this end. Without a presiding love of truth, men 
may exhibit extraordinary powers to persuade, or illus- 
trate, or beautify ; but without this, — without this, I 
say, not attributed, but really existing, — the fame of 
an understanding of the first order was never perma- 
nently established by any man. Without this, no 
tangible contribution was ever made to the resources 
of the human mind, any more than to the well-being 
of human society. 



Another qualification for the magistracy, which our 
text specifies, is a detestation of covetousness. We 
would have our magistrates hate covetousness, because 
we would be sure that their love of truth, that their 
integrity, is above temptation. Invested with such 
high powers, we might well tremble, if we should see 
them possessed by a sordid passion, the gratification 
of which might seduce them from the path of right. 
We would wish to have in their characters a pledge of 
something more than an incapacity of being swayed 
by any coarse form of bribery. Wo shall feel the 
more secure, if we witness in them no such covetous- 
ness of popular favour, as might seem like an ambition 
after higher prizes, which publick favour has to bestow, 
— for, betraying such a feeling, we might fear that 
they would systematically aim, or that they would be 
insensibly biassed, to make the office which they hold 
a stepping stone to the office which they desire, and 
thus that the popular clamour would be louder in 
their ear than the private citizen's claim for his rights. 
It will gratify us to see that they are not covetous of 
accumulation for the sake of luxury and state ; for 
then we might apprehend that their sympathies would 
be hurtfully estranged from that humbler mass of 
society, above which they seemed desirous to exalt 
themselves ; or, at least, that their minds might come 
to be occupied with objects merely trifling compared 
with their proper pursuits. And, on the other hand, 
we shall be little satisfied to witness in them the 
covetousness which stints and hoards, for we would 
2 



10 

not have minds, which must embrace subjects so large, 
and lift themselves to speculations so loftj, belittled 
and dwarfed by a parsimonious spirit. It will add 
greatly to our confidence in them, if we may see that 
their assumption of office has been disinterested, and 
dictated by views to the publick good. It is a sad 
condition of a country, when office is desired chiefly 
for its emoluments. It is a deplorable and a fearful 
thinjj, when the majestic trust of ordering a commu- 
nity's concerns is converted into a job of private self- 
ishness. We may prophecy in sack-cloth for a people 
capable of using their political privileges with a view 
to political preferment and its profits. In our country, 
and certainly not least in our commonwealth, we have 
been used, in past time, to other examples. We have 
been accustomed to see the most esteemed citizens 
under a sense of publick duty, assuming high office, 
at personal sacrifice ; — because, for the common safety, 
they would not see such momentous trusts committed 
to inferiour hands. God grant it be long before that 
noble race shall be seen to be extinct among us ! 

Once more ; it is said, thou shalt provide out of all 
the people audi as fear God, and let them judge the 
people. The fear of God, witnessed to be a rooted 
principle in a magistrate's heart, gives us the only 
complete assurance of his fidelity. It assures us not 
only that he will not knowingly pervert his trust to ill 
uses, but that he will bend himself to all its duties 
with a scrupulously conscientious purpose. It satisfies 
us, that, religiously observant of the oath of God 



11 

wliich is upon him, we shall no more find him remiss 
or unprofitable, than we siiall find him partial or op- 
pressive ; that he will diligently seek for guidance at 
the best sources ; that he will give to his tasks the 
best application of his mind ; and that he will watch 
cautiously and humbly against exposures to errour. 
In a religious community like this, we would have our 
magistrates fear God, because we would not have 
them without sympathy with ourselves on the most 
important of all subjects, and a subject the most inti- 
mately related to the well-being of all communities. 
They are conspicuous examples to the whole people 
whom they serve, — models, to no small extent, on 
W'hich is to be formed the character of the rising: 
generation ; and, in these respects, we would not lose 
the benefit of their being avowed friends to the church 
of Christ. 

If it had been our purpose, my hearers, to compose 
a compendious description of the eminent citizen, who 
has just ceased from his labours in the midst of us, we 
could not have done better than to select the words 
in which our text enumerates the qualifications of a 
competent magistrate. The character, in which those 
whom I address have viewed him, was the completion 
of his labours in building up an enviable name. But, 
from first to last, his was a singularly exemplary 
course. In the contemplation of it all, it is safe to 
say, that he has left (ew, " either wiser or better 
behind." The late Chief Justice Parker, the son of a 
merchant of this town, the straitened circumstances 



12 

of whose declining liltt threw a cloud over the early 
prospects of his family, was born in Boston, June 17th, 
1768, and after going through the steps of his prepa- 
ratory education at the publick Latin Grammar 
School, was admitted to the University, when four- 
teen years old. His cotemporaries, who, in every 
instance that I know, — and these are not a few, consid- 
ering the distance of time, — have since maintained for 
him a warm personal friendship, represent his course 
at that institution to have been in a high degree hon- 
ourable, in regard alike to deportment and acquisitions, 
to the evidence which he gave of uncommon talent, 
and the attachment which he universally inspired. 
Having been employed a short time as a teacher in the 
school where his early instruction had been received, 
and afterwards completed the preparatory study of the 
law under the direction of Judge Tudor of this place, 
he established himself for its practice in the town of 
Castine, in Maine, then a recent settlement; and, in 
twelve years after leaving college, was already repre- 
sentative in Congress of the district within which that 
settlement was included. During part of the admin- 
istration of Mr. Adams, the elder, he was United 
States Marshal for the district of Maine, from which 
oftice he was displaced on the accession of Mr. Jeffer- 
son to the Presidency. Three years after this, at the 
age of thirty-six, having meanwhile removed to 
Portland, he was invited to a seat on the bench of the 
Supreme Court of the Commonwealth. This propo- 
sition he saw fit, for the time, to decline ; but accepted 



V6 



it when renewed two years after, just before the late 
Chief Justice Parsons was elevated to that office. It 
was in the same year, that he presided at a criminal 
trial in this place,* involving questions of the most 
abstruse, delicate, and painful nature, and as fresh 
now in the memory of many of us as events of yester- 
day. On the death of Chief Justice Sewall in 1814, 
Judge Parker was placed at the head of the Court, of 
which he had now been eight years a member, and 
for sixteen years longer was permitted to preside over 
the administration of justice in our Commonwealth, 
having meanwhile also occupied the distinguished 
post of President of the Convention, called in 1820, to 
revise the State constitution. He died, as is well 
known, towards midnight of the last Lord's day, 
having been attacked, soon after waking the same 
morning, with an apoplexy, which from the first 
moment of its access, left to his distressed friends no 
hope, but that which refuses to expire except with 
extinguished life. 

It would of course be only presumption in me, to 
undertake to speak of this great man in that character 
in which he is to be chiefly known to posterity. In 
the twenty-four years of his administration of our 
supreme judicature, — a longer period than any of his 
predecessors, under the constitution, has dispensed our 
laws from the highest tribunal, — he is said by those who 
are competent witnesses to the point, not only to have 
" won a name long to be remembered and treasured up 

*The trial of T. O. Selfridge, on an indictment for manslaughter. 



14 

with the proud memorials of the Commonwealth," but 
to have produced " a body of law, which would do hon- 
our to the brightest periods of English jurisprudence ;"* 
and I observe that he is even pronounced in express 
terms, by one whose judgment is of the most approved 
currency, to have been "the most valuable pubiick 
servant, whom the judiciary department of this State 
has furnished."! It was well known that his mind 
was one of the most rapid, perspicacious, and clear, as 
well as the most candid. His candour ensured a 
patient attention from him to the exposition of all 
reasons, — but, with all this, there was no indecision 
in the man, except what belongs to that self-diffidence, 
and sense, at the same time, of the infinite worth of 
truth, which are perhaps always found united in the 
highest order of understandings. This led him, in his 
judicial capacity, to forbear to pronounce his judg- 
ments till he had weighed them carefully, and inspected 
them in all their bearings; but then they were found 
to be based on reasons which none but a very great or 
a very bold man would undertake to impugn ; and in 
the reference of controversies to that joint tribunal 
which our institutions entrust with the inquisition 
into facts, the same distinctness of perception, and 
fairness of exposition were uniformly seen to be min- 
gled. In making up his own decisions, or aiding those 
of others, most rarely did he seem to any to be carried 

* Jurisprudent, No. for July 10, 1830. 

t The extract is from a notice in one of tlie newspapers of the day, 
bearing the initials of the Hon. John Lowell. 



15 

further than his reasons went. Ready, on unexpected 
emergencies, to draw from the stores of a patiently 
acquired learning, and reduce it to new applications, 
within the competency of none but a philosophical 
mind, nothing could exceed the laborious devotion with 
which he addressed himself to the solution of intricate 
questions continually coming under his cognizance. 1 
had some acquaintance with his intellectual habits, and 
I have known something of the habits of others of the 
hardest working intellects of our neighbourhood ; and 
it has been all along my impression, that, with all its 
vivacity, I have never known the mind so patient of 
severe labour, nor the mind, which during the period 
of my observation, has been so heavily tasked. This 
was no hardship to him. It never broke his spirit. 
It never quelled his gayety. He toiled strenuously 
and anxiously, as a good man must, in such a place, 
evolving such perplexities under such a responsibility. 
But he was widely useful, and he was purely happy. 
He had his reward for all, in the spreading reputation 
of the decisions of the court where he presided ; the 
established and continually growing confidence of his 
fellow-citizens ; the sense of the value of his services, 
to which his modesty could not be wholly blind ; and 
the consciousness, worth all the rest, of the principle 
under which he rendered them. 

It is chiefly in the exercise of the judicial function, 
that the late Chief Justice is to be remembered as a 
publick character. In the early part of his career, 
when trusts which he held furnished more occasion 



16 

for the assertion of his views on political questions 
which divided the community, the part which he took 
was the most uniform and decided : and in later years, 
he was never backward to express, in all becoming 
ways, the adherence of his ripened judgment to the 
men and principles which had secured his youthful 
preference. But, along with this perfect decision and 
unreserve, there was always seen such a private 
friendliness, and superiority to the besetting mean- 
nesses of party strife, that it is exceedingly rare to find 
a man so open and strenuous in the serious contests of 
party, and, at the same time, commanding, to such an 
extent, in his private relations, the respect and good 
wishes of opponents. 

The original frame of Judge Parker's mind was 
such, that a discerning person, — who had undertaken to 
predict its destiny, before it had bent to the stubborn 
toils of one of the gravest sciences, — while he would 
have given it all credit for acuteness, comprehension, 
and strength, would have been likely to pronounce 
that it was to gain its high eminence in some walk of 
elegant literature. For works of imagination his taste 
was never lost nor abated. They made his customary 
relaxation from severer studies ; and there are few of 
those, who dispense themselves from a less attractive 
application on account of their tasteful devotion to the 
literature of the day, but would find, that, even in this 
department, his well economized leisure had laid up 
richer stores than their own. His facility and taste in 
composition were equally uncommon. There are few 



17 

known to us, who could express their thoughts in so 
flowing, vivid, graceful and exact a style. The inter- 
ests of our infant literature were always very near his 
heart. He was a vigilant and effective Trustee of 
Bowdoin College, and afterwards rendered still more 
important services, on frequent occasions, as an Over- 
seer of our own, which conferred on him several years 
since the dignity of its highest degree. He was a 
Fellow of the American Academy, and two years 
President of the society of Phi Beta Kappa, preceding 
in that office the late President of the United States. 
His uncommon power to simplify the abstrusest 
knowledge, combined with his distinguished profes- 
sional attainments, recommended him to the chair of 
law instruction in the University, which he continued 
to fill, till within a short period, with the reputation 
which always followed him. 

Judge Parker was, from principle, sentiment, habit, 
and experience, a religious man. Religiously edu- 
cated and always well inclined, his mature manly 
reason saw, in the proposed evidences of our faith, the 
satisfactory credentials of a divine communication, and 
his heart promptly bowed to its authority. Sixteen 
}ears ago, along with another eminent christian mag- 
istrate, the first Mayor of this city, and the now 
widowed partners of both, he connected himself with 
this church of our Lord ; and you, my brethren, can 
attest with me, how "holily, and justly, and unblame- 
ably" he has walked among us "in all the command- 
ments and ordinances;" what an interest this church 
3 



18 

has always maintained in liis affections ; what guid- 
ance we have been accustomed to find, as occasion 
offered, in his wisdom, — what impulse, at all times, in 
his example. For a long period an officer of our 
congregation, and always cheerfully taking a leading 
part on occasions of particular concern, he has never 
left us at a loss as to the feeling which he entertained 
for its prosperity. Becoming associated with you 
during the period of a ministry, whose premature 
termination was experienced by you to be one of the 
heaviest trials, the sentiment of personal friendship for 
him who was so early called away, seemed to strength- 
en his solicitude to watch over the trust bequeathed 
by one so prized and so lamented ; and along with 
those of others, who, blessed be God! were animated 
by a kindred spirit, his endeavours have been prospered 
to preserve this religious community, through all 
subsequent events, in the "unity of the spirit," the 
unbroken "bond of peace." 

The intelligent scriptural inquiries of this gifted 
mind had led to the adoption of views of christian 
doctrine, which on account of their connexion, more 
or less remote, with one cardinal point of true theology, 
are generally summed up under the denomination, 
Unitarian. But his reverential and hearty attachment 
to those views was just to itself, in being free from the 
slightest tinge of bigotry ; and his undisguised avowal 
of the sense he entertained of their vast worth, owed 
none of its emphasis to expressions of unkindness 
towards dissentients. And while he bore every where 



19 

to the faith he had espoused that best testimony of a 
christian conversation, a sober, righteous, and godly 
life, — while it was seen to iiavo disciplined him to a 
chastened moderation in the trials of eminence, and an 
uncomplaining submission under those of painful 
bereavement, — while in all places, publick and private, 
he was known zealously to support the institutions of 
our religion, habitually to recognize its principles, and 
firmly to assert its claims, he did not permit his inter- 
est to be doubted in practicable enterprises for its 
extension abroad, and the cultivation of the fruits which 
it yields, nor fail of such participation in enterprises 
of this nature as the speciiick duties of a crowded life 
allowed. He was for a long time an attentive officer 
of the Massachusetts Bible Society ; and the Evange- 
lical Missionary Society for assisting in the support of 
the ministry in feeble parishes, and the association 
which led the way in the now auspicious reformation 
of prevailing intemperate habits, have respectively 
enjoyed the benefits of his countenance and counsels 
as their presiding officer. 

I am not speaking to strangers, that I should en- 
large, as if imparting information ; and, if I were, I 
should be sure (»f failing to convey any thing like an 
adequate impression of the excellence, on which our 
afi'ectionate memory is dwc^lling. I might go on to 
speak of the mild and facile virtues of the private man, 
which brought the distinguished magistrate within 
the range of the sympathies, and gave him a place 
in the hearts of the humblest of the good ; of his 



20 

aptness to friendship, and constancy in that relation ; 
of his free and cordial, and, at the same time, unosten- 
tatious hospitality ; of his disinterestedness, which in 
the fornri of publick spirit, had so marked an influence, 
on the one hand upon his fortunes, and, on the other, 
upon his usefulness and his fame ; of his thoughtful 
consideration for the exposed, whom official relations 
brought before him ; of the tenderness of his commis- 
eration for the guilty, and the readiness of his generosity 
to the destitute ; of the expansiveness of his benevolent 
feelings ; of his delicate deference to the aged, and 
familiar kindness to the young ; of his equanimity 
and gentleness, smoothing all difficulties, and subdu- 
ing all impatience in those who might be acting with 
him, and scarcely known to be ruffled amidst the una- 
voidable vexations incident to the transaction of intri- 
cate affairs ; of the exemplary graces of his domestick 
character ; of the frankness and expression of confi- 
dence in his deportment, putting all who approached 
him at their ease ; of that habitual gayety of spirit, and 
power of ready adaptation to others' feelings, which 
only an exhaustless fund of kind and cordial feeling 
could supply ; of the honest, equal, friendly personal 
regard which he inspired, rarely excited in either a 
strength or extensiveness approaching this, by the most 
respected and valued publick men. I might speak of 
these distinctions, and other such. I might speak of 
them long. But you would say, that what I had 
glanced at, I had described very unsatisfactorily, and 
that there was much which I had left wholly untold. 



21 

My brethren, it luis pleased a wise and righteous 
God to remove from his place of earthly service one 
whom the community and his friends had very special 
cause to value. At a moment when all eyes were 
turned to him with a solicitude scarcely paralleled 
before, waiting for decisions of his mind of the most 
solemn nature, affecting human life and the publick 
safety, he is suddenly summoned himself to the award 
of a more awful tribunal. We could not justify our- 
selves in complaining of the visitation of that Being, 
who lent him to us for our good so long. I am struck 
with the view in which an event remarkably similar 
presented itself, years ago, to his own devout and 
discerning mind. In the reflections, which he has left 
on record, upon the death of Parsons, removed from 
the same station at the same age, he seems to be 
presenting to us those which he would have us VA'^eigh, 
under the affliction we are suffering from his own. 
" That such a man as this," — he said from the bench 
on that occasion, — '' that such a man as this, whose 
mind had never been at rest, and whose body had 
seldom been in exercise, should have lived to the age 
of sixty-three, is rather a matter of astonishment than 
that he should then have died. When the first painful 
sensations at so great a loss have subsided, it is not 
unsuitable to take consolation from the possible, if not 
probable consequences of a prolonged life. Beyond 
the age at which he had arrived, I do not know that 
an instance exists of an improvement of the faculties 
of the mind, but many present themselves of deplora- 



ble decaj, and humiliating debility. Should it not be 
considered a happy, rather than a lamentable event, to 
escape the infirmities, the disabilities, and perhaps the 
neglects, of a protracted old age, — to die in the zenith 
of reputation, in the strength of one's understanding ?" 
He had his wish. He died in the glorious zenith 
of his reputation, in the proud strength of his under- 
standing. In the disposal of that event, vvhicli coming 
however late, must have been felt to have come too 
soon by those whom he should leave, the lot which 
his forecasting wisdom approved, was ordained to be 
his own. We cannot admit the idea, that for him the 
supposition which he made could in any event have 
been realized. We cannot entertain the thought, that 
he could have lived long enough to find the commu- 
nity ho had so served ungrateful, the friends to whom 
he was so dear growing cold. But he has filled up 
honourably and happily the appointed measure of his 
days. For him there was no dull pause between his 
human usefulness and his heavenly rest. His sun has 
shone on us in unallayed lustre to the last ; and that 
for us should be enough. We lament that we are to 
have no more of his services and his society. We 
should rather rejoice that we have had so much of 
them. We should rather rejoice that he lived so long, 
so usefully, so prosperously ; in all respects so well. 
His work is done. His race has been benefited by 
him. His fame is secure. History has it. It can 
no longer, by any chance, be defiled or perilled. The 
last chapter of his earthly life has been written, and it 



23 

stands indelibly in golden characters. He was ripe, 
as we firmly trust, for a loftier, happier sphere of 
service ; and then, — to be rapt away in the undimmed 
brightness of his earthly honours, — are we reasonable 
and believing men, and shall we pity, or rather con- 
gratulate such a fortune ? 

While the community is overspread with a universal 
sadness, there have bitter tears been wept in a home 
one day most happy, and the next, by an overwhelm- 
ing visitation, most bereaved and desolate. To the 
Father of the fatherless and the God of the widow, 
and to those Christian consolations of which we trust 
they know the worth, we affectionately commend 
those sufferers. In the life with which providence so 
closely implicated theirs, they have enjoyed what they 
might most reasonably have prayed for. In the 
memory of that life they still enjoy what the heart 
may repose on, — with pride, shall I say ? — certainly 
with hearty satisfaction, and with christian gratitude. 
It is a great privilege to have been the objects of such 
attachment and such care. It is a signal favour of 
providence which permits even the remembrance, — 
when the present benefit has ceased, — of relations so 
intimate, sustained to a great and good mind. If 
there be a soothing power in sympathy, — and every 
benevolent heart owns that there is, — may not their 
consolations abound with their griefs, when all worthy 
men around them, — shall I not say, when the whole 
publick, honestly, deeply sympathizes ? Their heav- 
enly Father himself is tenderly compassionate of their 



24 

distress. In the very depth of the unfathomed sorrow, 
he has held out to them an acceptable pledge of this, 
in the truly gracious disposition of his providence, 
which, in an interval of publick duties, that had just 
before withdrawn their friend from their presence, and 
were forthwith to remove him again beyond the reach 
of their immediate care, sent him home, as his fate 
impended, to their own dwelling, to be translated from 
their arms.* May God be to them, to the end of their 
mortal pilgrimage, in the place of the friend whom he 
lent and has resumed ; and may all impressive lessons, 
of his life and of his death, be blessed to prepare them, 
the most concerned in both, for an indissoluble reun- 
ion with him among the spirits of just men made 
perfect ! 

On all of us, my hearers, — on all of this commu- 
nity, — who were benefited by the continuance of a 
life of such various usefulness, now devolves the obli- 
gation to turn its lamented termination to account. If 
we are not strangely unreflecting, such events cannot 
fail to do us good, in impressing on our convictions, 
how very much less every earthly thing else is, than a 
lofty, disinterested, and christian mind. It is not only 
the Bible which tells us this ; though if it were, that 

* The allusion here, as well as at the head of the 21st page, is to the 
absence of Judge Parker at Salem, in attendance at a special term of the 
Supreme Court for the trial of persons accused of the murder of Mr. 
White. On the 20th July the term was opened with an elaborate charge 
from him to the Grand Jury. On the 23d he returned home, and died 
on the 25th. The trials, which, from the amount of testimony, were 
expected to occupy several days, were to have proceeded on the 27th. 



25 

should be enough. The crowd of men, in the hot 
chase of all the world's vanities, pauses and stands 
still with its response, when it sees the services of 
such a mind withdrawn. Why is it that we have just 
beheld the community, where we dwell, first saddened 
with a solemn apprehension, and then with a universal 
mourning? It was that the life of a devoted and 
useful servant of God and man, — the enemy of no 
one, the ready friend of all, — was threatened and was 
closed. Let us learn from men's own earnest testi- 
mony, — unequivocally given, on occasions like this, — 
that usefulness is true honour ; that, along with the 
principle which must sustain it, it is the one thing 
supremely desirable upon earth ; that it is profitable 
for the life which now is, as well as for the life which 
is to come. Let that spirit be coveted and adopted 
for his own by each individual among us. We cannot 
all manifest it in a like station. Our places are 
different. But none of us fills a place which will not 
find it exercise, and if in very few of us it can be as 
efficient, in all it may be as sincere. The calamity, 
which we must labour to improve, finds opportunities 
to address its lesson with a special impressiveness. It 
calls on the ministers of the law, and on all publick 
servants, to practise a like conscientiousness, and aim 
at like qualifications, to what they have been privi- 
leged to witness. It invites the young to propose to 
themselves to leave in the world a fame as fair, if it 
may not be as splendid. It urges the professed disci- 
ples of Christ to emulate, — and not stop short in 
4 



26 

emulating, — the graces of him, whom tiiey have re- 
signed to the church invisible. To each it may have 
a distinct lesson ; but, — I repeat it, — it has one lesson 
for all. It is, that, — heedfully numbering our own 
days, and diligently applying our own hearts to wis- 
dom, — if we may not bring an ability, we may, and 
should endeavour to bring a spirit such as this was, to 
render, in our generation, beneficial services to our 
fellow men, and acceptable services to our God. 

With God is the residue of that same spirit, with 
which he was pleased to animate his now departed 
servant ; and he is able to repair the breach he has 
made, kindling the same spirit in other bosoms. 
When " the godly man ceaseth," when " the faithful 
fail from among the children of men," he does not 
cease from being his people's help. May he, for his 
great goodness' sake, watch over and help his people 
now, directing our honoured chief magistrate in the 
important decision so painfully devolved on him ; and 
may he be graciously pleased to raise up a succession 
of men of like spirit to his whom we lament, to be, in 
all time, ornaments to the church, pillars to the state, 
examples to the young, and blessings to society ! 



N O T E. 



The kindness of an eminent Judge of the Supreme Court of the United 
States, enables me to enrich tiiis publication with the following sketch of 
Judge Parker's character as an advocate and lawyer. 



Mr. Chief Justice Parker brouglit with him to the Bench the reputation 
of an able, active and learned advocate. He had well earned that reputa- 
tion by a course of long and honorable practice in the then District, now 
State of Maine. His talents (high as they were,) were not his only 
recommendation. He possessed what talents may adorn, but what talents, 
however shining they may be, never can supply, the mens conscia recti, ^n 
inflexible integrity, a deep-rooted and enlightened virtue. His private life 
was without reproach, his honour without stain, his political and civil 
career straightforward and steady. His manners were frank, modest, and 
winning, without ostentation and without aflTectation. INature had given 
him a mild temperament, a quiet and moderated cheerfulness, an ingenu- 
ous countenance, and social kindness, which pleased without effort, and 
was itself easily pleased. But his most striking characteristic was sound 
sense, which though no science, is, in the affairs of human life, fairly worth 
all and which had in him its usual accompaniments, discretion, patience, 
iudtrment. In his professional harangues he was persuasive and interest- 
in<r ; he had the earnestness of one, who felt the importance of fidehty to 
Ills client, and at the same time the sincerity of one, who It-lt the dignity of 
truth, and of that jurisprudence, whose servant he was, and whose precepts 
he was not at liberty to disown, and was Incapable of betraying. In the 
sense sometimes affi.xed to the term, he did not possess eloquence, that is, he 
did not possess that vivid imagination, which delights in poetical imagery, 
or in rhetorical flourishes, in painting the passions or in exciting them into 
action. He was not addicted to a rich and gorgeous diction, or to colour 
his thoughts with the lights and shades, or the brilliant contrasts of a vari- 
egated s^yle. But in a just sense, if we look to tlie means or the end, to 
his power of commanding attention, or his power of persuading, and con- 
vincino- the iinderstanding, he might be deemed truly eloquent. His 
reasonrngs were clear, forcible and exact; his language, chaste, pointed 
and select • his fluency of speech uncommon ; his action animated ; so 



28 

that in tlieir actual union tliey gave a charm to his arguments, which won 
upon the ears and captivated the judgment of his audience. 

Such was the reputation and character, which he brought to the Eench. 
He took his seat among distinguished men ; and he sustained himself as a 
worthy and equal associate. He did more, and accomplished what few 
men do accomplish ; he moved on with a continual increase of reputation 
even to the very hour of his death. He lived through times, happily now 
past, of peculiar delicacy and difficulty, in the midst of great political 
changes and excitements, when the tribunals of justice were scarcely free 
from the approaches of the spirit of discord, and the appeals of party were 
almost ready to silence the precepts of the Law. During this period, his 
firmness, moderation, patience, and candour secured to him the public 
confidence. When the office of Chief Justice became vacant by the 
lamented death of Mr. Chief Justice Sewall, all eyes were turned towards 
him as the successor. His appointment gave universal satisfaction. And 
yet, if he had died at that period, half of his real merits would have re- 
mained unknown. His ambition was now roused to new exertions by the 
responsibility of the station ; his mind assumed a new vigour ; his industry 
quickened into superior watchfulness ; and he expanded, so to say, to the 
full reach of his official duties. It was a critical moment in the progress 
of our jurisprudence. We wanted a cautious, but liberal mind, to aid the 
new growth of principles, to enlarge the old rules, to infuse a vital equity 
into the system as it was expanding before us. We wanted a mind to do in 
some good degree what Lord Mansfield had done in England, to breathe 
into our common law an energy suited to the wants, the commercial inter- 
ests and the enterprise of the age. We wanted a mind, which, with suffi- 
cient knowledge of the old law, was yet not a slave to its forms ; which 
was bold enough to invigorate it with new principles, not from the desire 
of innovation, but the love of improvement. We wanted sobriety of judg- 
ment ; but at the same time a free spirit, which should move over the still 
depths of our Law, and animate the whole mass. Such a man was Mr. 
Chief Justice Parker. And whoever in this age, or in any future age, shall 
critically examine the decisions of the Supreme Court during the sixteen 
years, in which he presided over it, will readily acknowledge the truth of 
these remarks. There was in his mind an original, intrinsic equity, a clear 
perception of abstract right and justice, and of the best mode of adapting it 
to the exigences of the case. He felt, as Lord Ellenborough before him 
had felt, that the rules, not of evidence merely, but of all substantial law, 
must widen with the wants of society ; that they must have flexibilit}', as 
well as strength ; that they must accomplish the ends of justice, and not 
bury it beneath the pressure of their own weight. There is in this respect 
much, very much to admire, and, if it were possible in our reverence for 
the dead, to envy, in his judicial career. Few men have ever excelled him 



29 

in the readiness of grasping a cause, of developing its merits, or of search- 
ing out its defects. He may have had less juridical learning than some 
men ; but no man more tlioroughly mastered all that was before him, or 
expounded with more felicity the reasons even of technical doctrines. He 
had an almost intuitive perception of the real principle pervading a whole 
class of cases, and would thread it through all their mazes with marvellous 
ability. His written opinions are full of sagacity, and juridical acuteness, 
at the same time that they possess a singular simplicity and ease. He 
rarely fails to convince, even when he questions what seems justified by 
authority. His judicial style is a fine model. It is equally remarkable for 
propriety of language, order of arrangement, neat and striking turns of 
expression, and a lucid current of reasoning, which flows on to the con- 
clusion with a silent but almost irresistible force. In his more studied 
eiForts, in some of those great causes, in which the whole powers of the 
human intellect are tasked and measured, he was always found equal to the 
occasion. Tliere are not a few of his opinions on some of these intricate 
subjects, which would bear a close rivalry with the best in Westminster 
Hall in our own times. There are some, which any Judge might be proud 
to nuniber among those destined to secure his own immortality. 

But we must stop. The time for mourning over such a loss cannot 
soon pass away. We have lost a great magistrate, and an excellent citi- 
zen. Vain is the voice of sorrow, and vainer still the voice of eulogy. 
They cannot recall the past. His place cannot be easily supplied ; for it is 
difficult to combine so many valuable qualities in a single character. To 
sum his up in one sentence, we may say, that, as a Judge, he was eminent 
for sagacity, acuteness, wisdom, impartiality and dignity ; as a citizen for 
public spirit, and elevated consistency of conduct ; as a man for generosity, 
gentleness, and moral purity. His fame must rest where it is fit it 
should ; upon the printed Reports of his own decisions. These will go 
down to future ages ; and though perhaps beyond the circle of the profes- 
sion they may not attract mucli general observation (for the misfortune of 
the profession is, that great Judges and great Lawyers cannot enjoy a 
wide-spread popular favour) tiiey will yet be read and honored by tiie jurists 
of succeeding times with undiminished reverence, when those of us, who 
have known and loved him, shall be mingled with the dust, that now 
gathers round his remains. They will often recal to the classical reader 
the beautiful eulogy of Cicero upon a great character of antiquity, so ap- 
plicable to his. Erat in verborum splendore elegans, compositione aptus, 
facultate copiosus; eaque erat cum summo ingenio, tum exercitationibus 
maximis consecutus ; rem complectebatur memoriter, dividebat acute, nee 
praetermittebat fere quidquam, quod esset in causa, aut ad confirmandum 
aut ad refellendum. 



30 

Judge Parker's family are understood to liave been settled, at an early 
period, on Parker's Island, in Maine. His father, Daniel, a native of 
Charlestown, married Margaret Jarvis of this city, and had many chil- 
dren. Two of them, daughters, survive ; one, mother of Lieut Colonel 
Eustis, of the army ; the other, unmarried. 

Either before Judge Parker was matriculated at College, or soon after, his 
father, finding himself unable to meet the expenses of his education there, 
proposed to apprentice him to the druggist's business v/ith the late Dr. 
Ephraim Eliot. This fact coming through Rev. Dr. Eliot to the knowledge 
of some opulent gentlemen, who were acquainted with the promise which 
he had exhibited at school, they interfered on the day of his entrance on his 
new occupation, and made arrangements for the original intention to be 
pursued. The circumstance deserves to be here recorded, as illustrative 
of the state of feeling, long ago, and still, existing in our leading citizens, in 
relation to our publick schools, and to the claims of those who there mani- 
fest the elements of a capacity to '• do the state some service." Examples 
of this kind are so frequent, that it can scarcely be said to be in the course 
of things with us, for a boy, who, at these institutions, develops uncommon 
talent, to lose, for want of pecuniary resources, the advantages of the 
best education which the country affords. Instances, among which what 
is here noticed is undoubtedly a most prominent one, of the blessing of 
providence on such a judicious publick spirit, are what have aided hitherto 
to keep it alive. As long as it continues the honourable characteristick 
which it is, of the habits of cur community, may it continue to be so re- 
warded ! Such services as this publication commemorates, and the good 
sense and feeling which, in the way now mentioned, have been instrumen- 
tal in causing them to be rendered, each do a noble part in the promotion 
of the common good, and are worthy to be called to mind together. 

The class of 1786, of which the subject of this notice was a leading 
scholar, has been one of the most distinguished in the annals of the Univer- 
sity. Among other names well known to the publick, we find those of 
Timothy Bigelow, many years Speaker of the House of Representatives of 
Massachusetts, Alden Bradford, lately Secretary of the Commonwealth, 
Dr. Harris, late President of Columbia College, N. Y., John Lov/ell, and 
Chaniplin and Thompson, U. S. Senators for Rhode Island and New 
Hampshire. 

While a Trustee of Bowdoin College, Judge Parker, in addition to the 
usual duties of the place, devoted much time to the sale of lands granted 
by the General Court for the endowment of that institution, and to other 
arrangements for the benefit of its finances ; and his exertions at that peri- 
od are understood to have been of the first importance, in laying a founda- 
tion for its now extended usefulness and reputation. 

Between his sense of duty to his family and to the publick, his accept- 



31 

ance of the office of Judije, when in llie receipt of a much hvrger income at 
the bar, was a subject of very anxious deliberation to liim, and his friends 
represent him as never having appeared to them otherwise than habitually 
cheerful and happy, except at this juncture. It was a step much urged by 
Judges Sedgwick and Sewall, and by the leading jurists of Boston and of 
other parts of the State. Subsequently he had almost made up his mind, 
atone time, to resign the office, and there is a very interesting letter of 
Judge Parsons, dissuading him on the ground of the worth of his services 
to the science and the community, and the obligation upon men like him 
to postpone private considerations to the publick benefit. Tiie writer 
knew the mind which he was addressing. 

In the Massachusetts Convention of 1820, Judge Parker frequently took 
a part in debates in Committee of the Whole. His speeches, on the consti- 
tution of the University, of the Senate, and the Executive Council, on the 
third article, providing for the maintenance of religious worship, and on 
other important subjects, are referred to in the Index to the Journal of that 
Convention. The beautiful tribute of the Delegates to John Adams, 
(Journal, p. 9) who was first chosen their President, but declined that trust, 
was from his pen. 

His critical taste was put in exercise for the preparation of the volume 
of posthumous sermons, by his friend Mr. Buckminster, which has enjoyed 
such high estimation, at home and abroad. Judge Parker and the late 
Hon. Samuel Dexter, with the assistance of Mr. George (now Professor) 
Ticknor, made in the first place a large selection from the manuscripts, 
from which were afterwards chosen by the Rev. Messrs. Channing and 
Thacher those which were given to the press. 

Judge Parker, after waking early, as was his habit, on the morning of 
July 25th, conversed some minutes, apparently in his usual health. Being 
observed, after a little time, to articulate less distinctly, he said that he felt 
a head-ache, but should be better after rising. On attempting to rise, he 
found his limbs partially paralysed, but was still able to maintain some 
conversation. On the arrival of Dr. Warren, in twenty minutes after he 
was seized, he manifested his satisfaction, but did not afterwards speak. 
Copious bleeding in one arm, and other strong remedies were resorted to, 
without the slightest good effect. Dr. Warren remained with him three 
hours, and again attended in consultation with Dr. Bigelow, but it was 
plain to the medical gentlemen that the case had been a hopeless one from 
the first. 

While resident at Castine, Judge Parker was married to Rebecca Hall, 
sister of the present Judge of Probate for Suffolk. He was bereaved of 
three children ; two sons in early childhood ; and, six years ago, a daugh- 
ter, Margaret Jarvis, whose loss was a keen affliction. Five survive ; Ed- 



32 

■ward William ; Ann Brooks, married to Henry Wainwright ; Charles 
Albert, clerk of the Court of Common Pleas for Suffolk ; John Brooks ; 
and Emily. 

In the 2d volume of Massachusetts Reports is a list of Judges of the 
Supreme Court since William and Mary's charter. It appears that 
four, viz. Samuel Sewall from 1G95 to 1726 ; Benjamin Lynde, 1712 — 
45; Paul Dudley, 1718 — 50 ; and Benjamin Lynde, 1745 — 1771, have been 
Judges a longer time ; but no Chief Justice has had so long a terra of 
service. 



LRBJL'ib 



